Bill helps protect us from majority tyranny

Saturday

Apr 27, 2013 at 12:01 AMApr 27, 2013 at 1:00 AM

Editor, the Tribune: House Bill 886 authorizes the General Assembly to remove any department director or deputy director if it determines the removal is necessary for the betterment of the public service.

HB 886 protects my rights from majority tyranny. Missouri government is proof of what James Madison wrote about in Federalist No. 10. He understood that self-government could not mean ruling other human beings without their consent. Abraham Lincoln, too, said self-government could never be compatible with the denial of consent.

Today, we see our officials denying and violating our natural, God-given right to liberty, which includes my right to own private documents that, because they are mine, can only be disseminated with my consent. The Department of Revenue sent private information of those who applied for conceal-and-carry permits to a federal agency without the consent of the owners of those documents. I am frightened at the fearlessness in which the DOR violated the Constitution and natural law.

Checks and balances provided by the Constitution cannot prevent tyranny. Tyranny is when others can — with or without the protection of law — take that which is mine without my consent. A law or action that violates the inalienable rights granted by God must be stopped. HB 886 can be used when evil finds its home in the majority of those in control of others.

HB886 provides a check on the majority tyranny that will always attempt to exist wherever men and women strive for power. HB 866 protects citizens when the checks-and-balances safeguards have failed.